Qualitative Evaluation of the Internal Control Structure Effectiveness in University of Medical Sciences by Fuzzy Interpretive Structural Model (FISM)

Evaluation in internal controls, especially in structures of a general nature, is a very important issue to prevent fraud and distortion of financial operations, which can lead to the effectiveness of oversight of budget allocation for specific expenditures and revenues. The University of Medical Sciences, as one of the public sector institutions in the country, can be effective in formulating future policies and strategies for budgeting by evaluating internal control while strengthening supervision over financial performance. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively evaluate the effectiveness of the internal control structure of medical universities. The purpose of this research is Qualitative Evaluation of the internal control structure effectiveness in University of Medical Sciences by Fuzzy Interpretive Structural Model (FISM). The research methodology was developmental and mix method. First, there was no coherent theoretical framework for qualitatively evaluating the effectiveness of the internal control structure, and this study sought to determine its propositions, so it is considered developmental from this perspective. Secondly, in terms of data type, considering that the research data is first collected through qualitative section analyzes (meta-combination and Delphi) and then based on the fuzzy matrix questionnaire, the most effective qualitative evaluation statements of the internal control structure are determined. The statistical population of the research was proportional to the type of data collection in the qualitative section, 15 accounting and management specialists at the university level, and in the quantitative section were 25 managers, deputies, chief auditors and senior auditors of the University of Medical Sciences. The results of the research in the qualitative section based on 11 initially identified studies indicate the existence of 8 main propositions that during two stages of Delphi analysis, one proposition was removed and a total of 7 propositions entered the phase of fuzzy structural interpretive analysis. In the quantitative part, the results showed that the most important and effective proposition of qualitative evaluation of the effectiveness of the internal control structure in the University of Medical Sciences is related to the proposition of increasing the executive guarantee in the evaluation of internal control. It was also found that the least effective components identified are the two propositions of the institutional basis in the evaluation of internal control and the strategic basis in the evaluation of internal control in the University of Medical Sciences.